First I started out drawing some bending of iron. But whengoogling for some inspiration I found : http://www.earthflame.com/And that is propably the route I'm taking.There are different kind of bending powers that you can have to alter things in your surroundings. The title of the web-paged is: water, earth, fire and air: Bending TechniquesAnd I simplified it to "BENDING TECHNIQUES"

So, in my game there will be 'bending spells' and/or abilities thatwill be used to get you through a maze. My engine is maze-grid based so that will fit the bill nicely

This is the first drawing / test of the iron-bending that I let slide:

This was made using a webcam and YawCam (java app!)Due to the nature of clay it is much faster to create animationwith 'natural' lighting and moving weight.Anim8or can be used but I don't want to spend too much timeright now on building meshes and stuff.

In the past I had used a similar technique but with fourcameras that capture the direction simultaneously.But the quality and lighting settings of each cam was different(even using same branch and type webcam!)So, this time I used a clay floor that I marked out so thateach frame would still be a little bit at the same spot.Without it you will have different perspective to work with (ARGHHH!)

Next step will be to move the gif to GIMP to make it transparentand resize to a tilesize that I can work with.

Using Gimp I resized the original captured image and made ittransparent. Next step was to use a sharptool to get a bitof contrast going on. Using the Select-by-Color tool I changed the colors to abit more 'duke' color. The original clay figure didn't had the back top.Arms where added for both the walk cycle and the push cycle.

Those animations sure take a long time and now that Isee them on a white background I see a lot of left over pixelshere and there. These will propably be gone later. Usually I would spend muchmore time on finishing the sprite. I started a bit on the firststand (front walk) but time is slipping and I want to CODE !!!!!

Apart from some loaned sources thesource code maybe used freely.GifDecoder has some LZW patent restrictionsinside.

To Be Done:

- More Dukes, each doing its own thing (= also new levels)- When more dukes are in one screen make 'nextlevel' depend on all dukes- Some help screens in between levels- Some buttons in the bar below LEVELS to do the same action as the BackSpace and ESCAPE

- Music / Sound- HighScore list (low priority)

Tested on SUSE Linux, Safari on OSXMozilla and Internet Explorer.As well as appletviewer (1.4.2)

Found that jdk 1.5.0 on Solaris for Intelwasn't working but that is running on asystem that isn't intend to run solaris 10:TOOO slow!

Some testresults would be nice .. for futureEngine work. *don't have the time now*

didn't know it had so much bending power Unfortunately I haven't had the chance of working with Opera.Downloading it now .. for future tests!Thanks for the report! Edit: Downloaded and installed Opera 9.6 on iMac (yeah I know, old) and I playedtwo levels and closed the page and couldstill navigate to other pages with Opera..must be something more to this.... Well,I'm going to work on more stuff.

GamePlay wise I made a decision to go towards two objects for each duke.The EarthDuke will have a Wood elementlike a ball and a tree-bark like structure.The Ball can be moved by bending powerand the tree section can be pushed.

The FireDuke will have a coblet of fireto be moved and some flames tomove through bending power.

The AirDuke will have a cloud to bepushed and a tornado to be bended.

The WaterDuke will have a bucketof water to be moved and a waterball to be bended.

I'm working on a matrix of the elementswhat happens when each of the elementshits the other and/or duke.

Oh jeah and there will be Iron object(s)that can't be altered and two types ofdirectional (bending) changing objects.Tubes will alter the route of the bendedpower elements. One type of tube canbe moved, the other is bolted down soit cannot be moved.

At 16.00 I had a really bad dip .. was trying to modifycopy32.java instead of object32.java and not justonce .... I'm winding down a bit today and hopefully geta better night sleep without pondering too much.

Fell behind schedule due to the game logic of the tubes.

But I manage to make some different dukes before calling it a day today:

@DemonPants: Sorry I am done. I will see if I can put itin my engine later on. But as for now I'm calling it DONE!

There are 20 levels for your enjoyment and I havemade a poll for my entrance.(if I made a mistake please help to correct it ...)

Credits go to JuddMan for his MapEditor andto my girlfriend who was so kind to support meduring this weekend.

Best regards from

M.E.

PS:No Music (could be easy drop , but I wanted to make an option to turn it off and I don't have the time for it)No HighScoreList.Well I'm pleased that I have made a complete game fromscratch (Using my engine/framework)

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